#freyder

The incredible @beemot drew Reyes Vidal and Cerys Ryder in a special moment from my fic Saints and Liars.

A taste of the next chapter of my Reyes Vidal x Aeryn Ryder story Tagging anyone who want to share theirs!

(AO3 Link - Doing some Andromeda prompts this year! Ryder tries to cook.)

Reyes was woken up by the sound of pots and pans clanging together coming from his kitchen. He opened his eyes to find the other side of his bed empty, and he reached out to touch the sheets - cold, so Ryder had been up for a while. At a muffled curse, he threw on a pair of sweatpants and padded out to the living area of his prefab. "Rosetta?"

"Hm?" she answered from inside one of the low cabinets. Her long lilac braid was mussed from sleep, and he couldn't help a smile at the sight. He always liked what she looked like after they spent the night together. Still, he asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm- Ow." She bumped her head on the top of the cabinet and clutched at the spot, sitting back on the floor. "Fuck."

Reyes tsked and knelt down next to her. "Let me see."

"It's fine," Ryder tried to wave him off. "I was trying to make breakfast until your kitchen tried to off me."

"Yes, it's all the kitchen's fault." He held back a chuckle. "Now let me see. I've had enough threats from your crew to know better than to send you back in anything less than mint condition."

She groaned but removed her hand. "Seriously? They couldn't leave well enough alone?"

"They weren't necessarily wrong," he said, parting her hair to check for blood. "I'm very dangerous, you know." He hissed when he found the wound. "Now, this needs medi-gel. Stay right there, and then I'll make breakfast."

"Maybe another kiss? Just to be sure,"

The Archon had taken the Hyperion. Ryder must retrieve her brother, the ark and all the sleepers on board. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, she gathers her allies. Reyes is the first she calls. With everything between them in limbo, she promises him a talk once the fight is over. But when the dust settles, Ryder is nowhere to be found.

Tagged by @fiadhaisteach Thank you so much!

How many works do you have on AO3?

Uhhhh..... 14?! Apparently, 14. Who knew.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

... oh my god... 386,362 words. 

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. 123 - The Sacrament (ME:A, F!Reyder) 4. 177 - Santa Sarita: The Lost Sermons (ME:A, F!Reyder) 3. 252 - The Cost of Salvation (ME:A, F!Reyder) 2. 264 - The Fall of Santa Sarita (ME:A, F!Reyder) 1. 469 - Sanctified (ME:A, F!Reyder)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to respond to every comment. I feel awful if I forget to respond because I know how hard it can be for some folks to even comment in the first place. And, comments mean A LOT to me, so I always want to reply and at least say thanks.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Well, Cost of Salvation was pretty damn angsty, but I also write Solavellan and have plenty of oneshots with sad AF endings. I also wrote A Gift for the Dying, a oneshot of ME3 from Thane’s perspective, and that’s uhhhh, pretty angsty.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Has to be The Charlatan and the Coinshot. They at least get together in the end and have a nice smooch.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the strangest one you’ve written?

I’ve written exactly one crossover, and that’s The Charlatan and the Coinshot. It’s an F!Reyder ME:A/Mistborn (Second Era) crossover. Which is extremely niche, but had a dedicated following. And artwork by the amazing @artsyblacksheep! So if you like Andromeda and are vaguely familiar with the Mistborn books by Brandon Sanderson, you might like it! 

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not on AO3. Back when I was a teen and posted on FF,net, there was much hate. I stopped writing fic for like, a decade, because of that.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes... but now I don’t know what you mean by “what kind”. Usually not too explicit, more emotions than just sex for the sake of sex.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of. Is that a thing people do?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had someone offer to translate and that led to a wonderful friendship across the continents. Eventually the work was too large for her to finish, but it was still amazing and worth it, to me.  

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not. I think I’d be open to it, if I had a writing friend that close.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

... Solavellan probably. I’m a sucker for that angst train, and the AUs are SO GOOD. 

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and emotion. 

What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot. It’s a mystical thing that just sort of shows up halfway through and makes the story THAT MUCH LONGER.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

It’s hard and I try to be very careful and conscientious. I think if researched, proofread by native speakers, and used within the scope of character it can be done. But, I try to keep it to a minimum.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Well, Harry Potter. But that went no where. Then Chronicles of RIddick, which also dead-ended. My writing really took off with the Moonlight. That’s when I started posted oneshots and complete works, so I count it as my first *real* fandom.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Well, my favorite that’s up on AO3 is... impossible to say. I love them all and think many of them have some really great writing in them. Inevitable is very precious to me, but so is Santa Sarita. And A Gift for the Dying is a small piece that gets overlooked, but has some really strong characterization and prose in it.

But, my favorite thing that I’ve written is always the current WIP. Which, at this moment is Inevitable oneshots and a Solavellan Modern AU that is so ridiculously self-indulgent it’s embarrassing. I won’t be posting it until it’s done, because I don’t want to put any pressure on it. It’s just for me and my mental health at the moment, and it’s nice to have something that’s mine. Does that make sense?

I made it!! Thanks to @obvidalous​, @natsora​ and @rpgwrites​ for making me believe in myself. For real your guys have my hole heart

Since my new computer sucks, and I can’t have new screenshots because MEA is not working on it, I tried to be realistic.

Part 1 here

Reyes was never a social media guy. He was an alliance soldier, most of the pictures he had were some Friday night drinks with a bunch of colleagues on their profiles. His personal page was a desert with two or three landscape pictures and a glass of whiskey. 

That is why he could not care less when Andromeda new social media started. Some Koreans and Japanese got out of cryo, and apparently, they were brought here for helping communication between the colonies. So yeah, let's make a social media. 

And it worked. Reyes saw many Kadara residents with their profiles at hand on their omni-tool. Some people from the Nexus had a device on their hand, a 5.5 inches board with a screen that they took everywhere.

Even the bathroom.

Just like on earth, it was kind of bizarre. But people seemed to like it, so now he had requests to smuggle the devices enough to pay for a month of expenses. Since the information was his job's top priority he made an anonymous account, not that was anything that much useful but better than nothing. 

Scott Ryder was awake, but his sister Sara was still in a coma. People were commenting that we would take Lumina's place as a pathfinder, and calling her a 'cold-hearted woman that should be replaced'.

And that is why he hates social media.

The woman put outposts, killed Kett, found arks, made diplomatic contact with the Angara, saves Nexus ass every day but is "cold-hearted" because she doesn't have a fake smile or an annoying positive attitude.

A few days later, the Tempest was back on Kadara.

Drack and Vetra went to see something no one needed to know, Liam and Jaal went back to complain about the place, Peebee went to the market, and a white hair girl ran towards a group of people, smiling and laughing.

He kept watching the vid until realizing that the girl was Lumina. Even her crew members were in shock at her laugh in the images, or maybe it was the fact that she was speaking japanese so fast that looked like a machine. 

At the bar, they chose to sit in the middle laughing and drinking like never. He knew those people. They were hunters and hackers, all from some part of Asia. Some of the most dangerous at Kadara. 

"You are something else Ryder..." He whispered, going back to work.

His device had a notification. An anon count posted that, 

'The shady Pathfinder has shady friends.’

Looking at Lumina, she didn't seem to care much.

Hours passed, around 3 am, Reyes decided to leave. 

The group was paying for the last round of drinks, Drack was there probably to keep an eye on her, although she seemed fine. The best among all of them. 

"So why did you dyed your hair?" Kian said while cleaning the bar.

"Yeah, why Luuuumi?" The drunk girl with bangs asked, her name was Eunseo from what he had gathered. One of the best Hackers in the initiative. 

Heard she stayed after the munity to spit in Tann's face in front of the screen, and laughed all the way towards the escape pod.

Some members of the Collective worked with her, not just because she was a pretty good hacker, but because the girl needed a job after telling Sloan to ‘suck her wiggly dick.’

Funny group.

"So when the social media was announced, Tann called all the pathfinders and told us to keep a low profile for appearances." Said Lumina while dressing her coat and fixing her hair that looked smooth and shiny. 

Reyes wanted to touch it, maybe pull a bit while looking her in the eyes.

"So you dyed your hair white to tell him to fuck off." The smuggler said while walking away from the bar fixing his hair after a long workday. 

"Oh Reyes, I would never do something like that."

After huggy-huggy moments between friends, he decided to walk her to the tempest, in silence. A comfortable silence. Once close to the ship, he finally asked. 

"You really didn't dye your hair to tell Tann to fuck off, Ryder?" Lumina rolled her eyes and sited on a cradle, the streets were empty, but he knew there were eyes on him and the Pathfinder. 

Her legs were open, the arms were placed above the thighs, hands hanging in the middle. And Lumina knew he was looking at the black shorts a bit tight, her oversized shirt did not cover all this time. The nearly Ivory hair perfectly contouring her slightly chubby face.

That duality of being strangely adorable in a moment then a wolf about to attack in the other was no joke.

"Of course not Reyes." Lumina leaned towards him, normally that would be almost to close for his taste there was an interesting look on her face, kind of provocative. "I told him to fuck off, then dyed my hair."

She blinked, and booth laughed and Reyes wandered... What a girl like her was doing at the Nexus?

“Wait a minute.” She run to the ship, coming back five minutes later with a plastic box, she opened the container.

It was an Omuraisu.

“I hope you like your bento...” Lumina bowed a bit, hiding her face, while warping the box in a black fabric. 

Reyes put two fingers on her chin, their eyes meet. She was using contacts, the eyeballs look bigger than normal. Finally, a weak point in the hard shell.

The Charlatan noticed, she probably never even kissed before, that is why it was so embarrassed to be so close to him that way. Still he leaned on, and game a charlatan smirk.

“Thank you, Lumina. I will make it up to you.”

Reyes never knew a human could be so red, it was cute. The goodbye was quick, he ate the bento box in the next day at Tartarus. Kian made some jokes. But in the end, gave him another advice.

“Good luck finding a chocolate in Kadara to give back the gift properly.”

Reyes smile nearly died, but he saw the empty food box, all the food perfectly organizes, she took some time to make it. He was full for the day, and it was the first decent meal in nearly six months. Imagined Lumina at the tempest kitchen organizing, and smiled again looking at Kian.